Focus On 'macbeth'

John Russell Brown

Psychology Press, 2005 - Literary Criticism - 272 pages

First published in 1982.

Macbeth exercises a strange influence over readers and theatre audiences: the words of the text offer no easy clue to meaning or significance and in dramatic structure the play is very different from other Shakespearean tragedies. Many kinds of study are needed in order to understand the tragedy of Macbeth and this book provides a wide range of studies that respect the individuality of the text and examine it from different viewpoints.

Contents include: Themes and Structure; Characterization and Narrative, Visual Effects, Performance in the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; Historical and Political Background; Role of Witchcraft; Game Theory.

Contributors include: John Russell Brown, Derek Russell Davis, Gareth Lloyd Evans, R A Foakes, Michael Goldman, Robin Grove, Peter Hall, Michael Hawkins, Brian Morris, D J Palmer, Marvin Rosenberg and Peter Stallybrass.

What people are saying

Review: Focus on Macbeth

User Review  - David Loveland - Goodreads

Pretty relevant dissertation reading. Not the most engaging or spectacular of criticism books, but I've come not to expect anything great from them...

Contents

• ambition in Macbeth: 7
• The kingdom the power and the glory: 30
• visual effects in Macbeth: 54
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the eighteenth: 73
• 194680 at StratforduponAvon: 87
• Multiplying villainies of nature: 113
• History politics and Macbeth: 155
• Macbeth and witchcraft: 189
• Hurt minds: 210
• Directing Macbeth: 231
• Afterword: 249
• Index: 255

Bibliographic information

• Title: Focus On 'macbeth'; Routledge Library Editions; Volume 5 of Routledge Library Editions: Shakespeare; Volume 5 of Routledge library editions - Shakespeare: Critical studies
• Editor: John Russell Brown
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0415352762, 9780415352765
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry; Literary Criticism / Shakespeare